Roya is a middle-class Muslim woman that struggles to find herself in the sprawl of urban Bangladesh. When she discovers that she will be replaced by a younger actor for the role of Nandini —a central character of Rabindranath Tagore’s political play Red Oleanders —she battles to reconstruct the part, reclaiming her identity and sexuality in the process. As she sets the play in a modern day ready-made garment factory in Dhaka, her journey to establish her individuality is juxtaposed with the journey of her housemaid Moyna, who later joins the industrial workforce.
Acting
Shahana Goswami's restrained ferocity—every micro-expression is a manifesto.
Direction
Hossain weaves garment factory and rehearsal space into one breathing metaphor.
Writing
Tagore's 1924 play weaponized against 2015 Dhaka's worker exploitation.
Director
Rubaiyat Hossain
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rubaiyat Hossain filmed in actual Dhaka garment factories, risking shutdowns to capture authentic worker conditions.
Tagore originally wrote Nandini as male-coded revolutionary ideal; Hossain's gender flip exposes how South Asian theatre still sidelines women past 35.
BD
